The Hunter and Her Spirit
by TwinCarcino
Summary: Lapis Lazuli is a part of the five percent of humanity capable of seeing and interacting with Spirits and Corruptions. After being put in a life-threatening situation causes her to form a pact with a Spirit named Peridot, she is determined to get out of this pact and go back to a normal life.


**Authors Note**

Hey, everyone, I hope you enjoy this new story of mine. It came about after I started rewatching _Soul Eater_ and started watching _Noragami_. I'm a sucker for the people turning into weapons trope.

* * *

There was more to this world than just man a beast. There were more to humans than what the masses even thought. Their race was split up into two distinct halves. The majority, the ninety-five percent of humanity who were completely average, completely normal. Average, normal people who lived average, normal lives and believed the world fell into their average, normal views. Then, there was the remaining five percent of humans.

People who could see what was really there. People who could see the Spirits and monsters known as Corruptions who were woven in with the human population, slinking around, existing unseen by the rest of the human race. They could do more than just see these beings, but they could also interact with them. Form pacts with them. Hunt them.

These people were called Hunters.

They had developed otherworldly abilities as a result of their constant exposure to these otherworldly beings. But it wasn't with these abilities that they used to hunt the Corruptions. It was the Spirits with whom the Hunters entered pacts with.

To enter a pact with a Spirit, they could fight a Corruption, it was the only way they could kill a Corruption. That was the duty of a Hunter; to work with a Spirit and hunt down Corruptions, monsters who blindly attacked and harmed humans.

Lapis was a Hunter. Well, an ex-hunter. She was twenty-three years old, born in the Lazuli family, one of the many groups and families composed entirely of Hunters. She was raised from a young age on how to kill Corruptions, her life was supposed to be dedicated to hunting them down, to killing them. At fifteen she'd made her pact, her spirit was beautiful, large and powerful. Lapis loved feeling powerful using her.

At nineteen the pact was ended and Lapis retired from being a Hunter. Her pact with her Spirit had gone sour, had become toxic, unhealthy, a threat to her life and her Spirits. So, the pact was broken, she left home and decided to just live an average, normal life like all the other average, normal people. She applied at colleges, got accepted at Ocean Town university, began studying marine biology.

She could still see Spirits and Corruptions, could still hear them talking. There weren't that many in Ocean Town, likely because there weren't many people in Ocean Town. Whenever there was a problematic Corruption, a group of Hunters from the next town over would take care of it and then go back home, so Lapis never really had to worry. She could live a peaceful, average, normal life without being involved in the life of a Hunter anymore.

At least, that's what she wanted. But, life had a way of just fucking you over without mercy.

And one moment of life fucking her over is what led Lapis to the here and now; running for her life from a large, vicious, _hungry_ Corruption in the dead of night.

Her legs burned and she was panting for breath. She could hear panting behind her from the massive beast that was chasing her. It looked like it could pass as a dog if people only looked at its shadow. It was dog form in shape, but it was oozing black liquid from its fur, had seven eyes and a tail that looked like it belonged on a scorpion. Also, it was several times bigger than any human Lapis had met.

It chased her, hungry for blood, for a human soul. It chased her, seeing Lapis as its prey, as its next meal. It chased her and Lapis ran, ran, ran.

Her lungs burned, her eyes were blurring over a bit. She had no way to defend herself against this thing, not when she wasn't in a pact with any Spirit, not when she didn't have a weapon capable of hurting it. Even her own powers would do nothing.

She ran, and ran, and ran. Looping around town, making sharp turns and diving into narrow alleys in a desperate attempt to shake the Corruption off, but knowing it was futile. Once a Corruption caught a scent, it'd chase its prey down until one of them died.

Right now Lapis' only hope was to keep running until she crossed paths with a Hunter. But, the closest Hunters were in Beach City and though it was only an hour away, she wouldn't be able to make it to them in time, wouldn't be able to keep running fast enough to keep out of its grip. Honestly her only saving grace was now was that despite its large size, the Corruption wasn't that fast. She was able to keep ahead of it, but it wouldn't last forever, she'd start to slow down sooner or later and then the Corruption would catch her.

She truly was fucked.

Blinking back angry tears, Lapis ran. She made a sharp turn out of the alley she'd cut through and right down the sidewalk she saw it. A bright glowing light that was floating in front of the window to a game store. A Spirit.

Swallowing hard Lapis clenched her hands into fists. She didn't want another Spirit. Didn't want to enter a pact again. Didn't want to go through what she had with her last Spirit ever again.

But the Corruption was drawing closer, gaining ground and Lapis really didn't have many choices right now.

So she charged down the sidewalk towards the Spirit. Without stopping she grabbed onto the floating orb of light and kept running. It hurt, she was tired, but her life was on the line and she couldn't afford to slow down.

"Hey, you! Spirit, form a pact with me!" Lapis all but yelled and demanded as she ran, glancing behind her, the Corruption was still hot on her trail, all eyes narrowed down on her, focused on her and only her as drool dripped from its foaming maw. She looked back at the Spirit in her hands, "We don't have much time, I need you to form a pact with me, now!"

Spirits couldn't speak. They didn't possess the ability to form words, let alone sounds. But, they could still communicate by sharing their feelings across to those around them. And what Lapis got in response was basically a big fat 'no'.

She grit her teeth and tightened her grip on the Spirit just slightly. "Look, I don't have time to argue. I need you to form a pact with me so I can get rid of that thing!" she yelled and glared at the Spirit, "Aren't you guys usually jumping for the chance to form a pact? What the Hell is wrong with you?"

She could feel it practically making some kind of rude remark or angrily huffing and turning around. Why did the one Spirit she run into have to be so stubborn?!

As she ran, she came upon a narrow space between two closed shops. Just small enough that Lapis could fit through, but far too narrow for the Corruption. Swallowing, she slipped into it, feeling the brick scratching against her skin and hearing the Corruption clawing at the walls to try and get her.

There was no way out, but at least the beast couldn't get in. Leaning against the cold, hard wall, Lapis tried to catch her breath as the Spirit hovered beside her. She fixed it in a hard glare,

"Look, I want to make a pact with you as much as you want to with me, but we don't have a choice. That thing has your scent too, meaning that once it's done eating me, you're going to be gobbled up next." Well, that was thanks to Lapis, the Spirit wouldn't have been harmed at all if she hadn't dragged it into this, but a desperate situation called for underhanded tactics like that, so she didn't feel bad about putting its life at risk like that. "If you want to survive, you might as well make a pact with me so we can get rid of this thing and go back to how things were."

She could feel that the Spirit wasn't happy with this, it was about as happy as Lapis was to be in this situation. Hopefully the glowing ball wasn't an idiot and continued to refuse even when their lives were on the line. She bit her cheek when she felt the accusatory disdain form the Spirit and quickly shook her head.

"No! I promise I'm not going to just dump you once this is done!" she lied. That was probably what had the Spirit so reluctant to form a pact with her, they didn't like being used once and thrown away. Not that Lapis could really blame it for being reluctant to accept for those reasons, especially when that was exactly what Lapis planned to do. She didn't want to be a Hunter, and Spirits were a core part of being a Hunter, but right now there wasn't any other option.

After what felt like eons of waiting with the Corruption clawing at the buildings, snarling and trying to fit its massive body in, the Spirit drew closer to her. It hovered up so that it was right in front of her at eye level. She could sense its reluctant decision.

Just this once, Lapis thought to herself. Just this one time.

She closed her eyes and held out her hand. She could feel the soft, gentle warmth of the Spirit as it settled onto her palm. There was a ceremony that went with forming pacts, but they didn't have the luxury of time at the moment so Lapis just rushed through the words and lines and completely ignored all the other aspects that were more for show than actually being necessary parts of the process. The Spirit grew warmer in her hands.

She had her eyes closed, so she was able to shield them from the blinding light that occurred when the pact was sealed and the Spirit was given shape.

What happened next was a complete blur. Having been running on nothing but adrenalin during those moments, Lapis couldn't really say she remembered the details of what she had done. The whole thing after the pact had been sealed had lasted maybe three minutes, but felt like three seconds.

When Lapis' mind had caught up with her actions, the Corruption was lying down in a crumpled heap on the road, it's massive body dissolving into black smoke after it had been slain.

Panting for breath, Lapis looked down to her right hand. Gripped in it was a dagger, it's blade had an almost green sheen to it, and the handle fit perfectly in her hand. It was a pretty simple weapon, small, not that powerful, nothing compared to her previous Spirit.

Frowning, Lapis tossed the weapon to the side and gave the Corruption a firm kick for the hell it put her through that night. Well, what was left of the Corruption that hadn't finished dissolving yet. The dagger was covered in a glow as it fell through the air and seconds later too it's new form. Lapis tilted her head to get a good look at the Spirit. At what the Spirit actually looked like.

It… no, she, was short. Very short, probably at least six inches shorter than Lapis, and Lapis was pretty average in terms of height. She was a skinny thing, with fluffy blonde hair that stuck up almost giving her hair a vague triangular shape. Her eyes were wide and green, and the hoodie she wore was just a darker shade than her eyes. She was staring up at Lapis, mouth open slightly as though she was trying to figure out what to say but couldn't seem to get any words right.

Lapis just turned on her heels and started walking away. "Good work, see ya," she said bluntly.

The Spirit jumped and chased after her, "Hey? What! What do you mean 'See ya'?" she demanded, her voice was a bit more nasally than Lapis would have expected, it was kind of annoying. The Spirit latched onto Lapis' arm to try and stop her from walking, much to the human's annoyance, "You can't just walk away! Aren't you going to, I don't know, explain yourself? Introduce yourself?"

"And why would I do that?" Lapis' gaze was empty, disinterested.

The blonde Spirit bristled at that, "Why? Are you serious? We just entered a pact, the very least you could do is give me your name! Honestly, some manners you have," she huffed.

Lapis shrugged her off and turned her whole body so she could face the smaller girl, "Look, I just needed you to get that Corruption off my tail. Our pact ends here and now, so let's just make it official and go back to what we were doing before this," honestly, she was hoping she could go home and end the pact, since the tools needed for it where stored away in her closet, and she wanted to do it without having an annoying leech on her during the process, but looks like she'll have to say it to the Spirits face.

That pale skin turned red, from embarrassment or anger Lapis couldn't tell. The girl stammered for a minute before stomping her foot into the ground, "You can't just—you—you clod!" she yelled, glaring at Lapis, she actually sounded hurt over it, "You said that you weren't going to just ditch me after dealing with the Corruption!"

"I lied, get over it," Lapis replied.

"Not cool!" The Spirit snapped, "You can't just do that!"

Lapis shrugged and started walking again, "I can and I did. Once I get back to my apartment I'm breaking the pact."

"You're awful," the Spirit stated, "Terrible. You use me to kill a Corruption, let me take back my form and then take that away from me. You are an awful person; you know that?"

Oh, trust her, she knew that. She knew that she was awful, that she was terrible. She didn't need a Spirit telling her what she already knew. So instead, she just pretended to ignore it as she kept walking. She hated that she was actually starting to feel a little guilty about this and wished the Spirit would shut up so she wouldn't feel bad about just using it like she had.

"What do you want from me?" Lapis snapped when the Spirit wouldn't stop talking and complaining, "I don't even _want_ to be a Hunter. Forming a pact with you was just a way to keep myself alive. I'm not jumping back into that life just because I had to grab the first annoying Spirit I found."

The being matched her glare with one of her own. Arms crossed across her chest, she tried to look bigger, more intimidating than she was, "Then how about you take responsibility for claiming a Spirit," she said stiffly. Lapis raised an eyebrow at her, not quite getting what she was getting at, "Rather than just dumping your Spirit—me—onto the street, how about you just take me to a Hunter who wants a new Spirit."

"That's a stupid idea," Lapis replied.

The Spirit didn't back down, "Then I'll just keep harassing you after the pact is broken for what you did," she responded, "I mean, in some places you'd be put to death for violating a pact and betraying your Spirit like that, so I think you're getting a great deal." How much of that was true, Lapis didn't know, and honestly she didn't care.

Lapis ground her teeth and started walking again. There was no doubt in her mind that this Spirit would honestly make her life a Hell if she just up and ditched her like she planned on. "Fine, I'll find you some Hunter to form a pact with, happy?" she asked, throwing her hands in the air.

The emotions on the Spirits face did a sudden 180 as she was suddenly beaming with joy. "Seriously? Thank you!"

Lapis rolled her eyes, "Yeah, whatever, just be quiet already," she grumbled.

The girl just bounced as she walked behind Lapis, following her to her apartment and ignoring Lapis' demand for silence, "My name's Peridot, by the way. What's yours."

"Lapis Lazuli," she answered as she rubbed her face. Why didn't she just let the Corruption catch her and eat her? She was starting to find that death was the better choice than what she actually chose.


End file.
